12/20/01 Show me a tie
One reason that Senate Republicans are in a cheerful mood this holiday is that they feel confident of picking up enough seats to reclaim the majority. One new present in their stocking is internal polling that shows Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan of Missouri tied with likely Republican challenger Jim Talent, 43 percent to 43 percent. "It's Talent's to lose," says a top GOP source, citing the Republican poll figures. Carnahan beat then Sen. John Ashcroft, now attorney general, after replacing her husband in the 2000 campaign after he died in a plane crash.
12/18/01 Santa cleared to land
This just in from the U.S. Department of Transportation press office:
Kris Kringle, d.b.a. Santa Claus, got the green light today from the U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT) to engage in air travel to various
points throughout the United States the night of December 24-25.
An order granting a flight certificate and signed by U.S. Transportation
Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said that Santa Claus was "exceptionally fit,
joyfully willing and uniquely able to engage in the interstate air
transportation for which he has requested a certificate." The secretary
added that Santa has a 100 percent on-time arrival record, having never
failed to deliver all of his toys by Christmas morning.
In his application, Santa Claus described himself as a citizen of the
world residing at the North Pole who performs a vital and specialized
transportation service. The points to be served are the dwelling places of
good girls and boys, as well as adults of goodwill, throughout the United
States," Claus said in his application.
The applicant notes that his operating proposal will meet the air service
requirements of countless small communities and also will serve the major
transportation hubs in all regions.Santa Claus also told DOT that his sleigh will be powered by eight tiny
reindeer, with the addition of a possible ninth reindeer with a special air
navigation warning light in its nose, in the event of fog or heavy snow.
Finally, the applicant, aware of the department's heightened security
concerns, states that he has personally packed all his bags and has kept
them in his sight for months. He also vouches for his trusted elves, who
lovingly prepared the contents and carefully handled the packing as they
have done for centuries without incident. Santa also says that he has a sky
marshal of sorts aboard. He has asked his lead reindeer, Rudolph, to stay
especially alert, especially for the presence of nearby aircraft.
12/18/01 Now that's a lot of eggs
We always loved having eggs and bacon with Godfrey "Budge" Sperling Jr. of the Christian Science Monitor. It was the ultimate in "spoon feeding" the press, as he'd invite newsmakers to meet with about two dozen reporters once or twice a week to discuss the issues of the day. The newsmakers would have a chance to make their point and we'd get a story. And it wasn't even 9 a.m. When he hosts his last breakfast Thursday with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Sperling will hand over the reins to his bureau chief, David Cook. Officially, that's the 3,241st Sperling Breakfast, as they've been known around town over the past 35 years. He'll continue to write his column for the newspaper but won't have to play traffic cop to pushy reporters at the breakfasts.
12/13/01 Wartime blue-light specials
Have you noticed that the war in Afghanistan isn't plagued by the embarrassing Gulf War tales of pilots resorting to credit cards to buy equipment that Washington just couldn't ship on time? That's because changes sparked by the bungling now let the General Services Administration, the government's shopper, speed up purchases. It was especially evident right after September 11, when GSA quickly tapped its suppliers to help in the World Trade Center cleanup. "We did some pretty incredible things within 24 hours of the towers," says David Drabkin, the GSA's chief acquisition officer. "The taxpayers, in this case, ought to be happy."
12/12/01 Friedman muddies voucher debate
With a landmark Supreme Court case looming, school voucher fans are bringing out their big guns. Such as: free-market guru Milton Friedman. He sang the praises of vouchers in a video chat from San Francisco. But the 89-year-old Nobel laureate strayed from libertarian orthodoxy in one key respect: He said it's "perfectly okay" for lawmakers to require kids receiving vouchers to take state tests to check on their academic progress. That's a no-no for many school choice boosters, who hate state mandates.
12/11/01 Another round in Microsoft fight
The whining between Microsoft Corp. and its foes in the ongoing monopoly case has gotten so bad that now they're even bickering over who's complaining most. Just one example: Last week, former Netscape Communications CEO James Barksdale wrote in the Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52703-2001Dec3.html] that the new Microsoft settlement set to be discussed before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week [http://judiciary.senate.gov/hr121201f.htm Senate sked] is a loser for consumers. Making sure that no charge goes unanswered, Americans for Technology Leadership, a group that likes the Justice-Microsoft settlement, has provided Whispers a counterstrike. In a letter to Barksdale, ATL Executive Director James Prendergast writes, "We wanted to send you an appropriate present to go along with the whining you continue to do about Microsoft." The gift? You guessed it. "Arriving shortly will be a case of real California wine. I hope you enjoy my case of wine more than consumers enjoy your case of whine." See his letter here.
12/6/01 The terrorist buck stops here
Money-laundering cops have found a way to cut through long waits for info from faraway embassies and foreign ministries. They're now passing intelligence informally through the little known Egmont Group, a collection of some 60 nations' "financial intelligence units," investigative bodies that specialize in tracing the flow of dirty cash. Named after its first meeting in 1995 at a palace in Brussels, the Egmont network has proved invaluable in tracking terrorist funds, reports our David E. Kaplan. "It's the wave of the future," says one fed.
Check out their Web site: http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/Ctry-orgpages/org-egmont_en.htm http://www1.oecd.org/fatf/index.htm
12/5/01 There’s trouble in Little Rock
So much for a smooth groundbreaking in Little Rock at the Bill Clinton presidential library and museum. As things got going on Wednesday, Clinton’s union friends staged a protest. They say the president’s team hasn’t hired any union workers or awarded any contracts to minorities yet in the $200 million project. “He took our donations in 1992 and 1996, but when it's time to give something back, he doesn’t. Typical Clinton,” complains Lindsey Brown, who represents the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. Then there’s the lawsuit from a group angry with the Clinton team’s elimination of the old Choctaw Freight Depot on the grounds of the new presidential facility. Historic preservationists wanted to keep the freight depot, which was abruptly destroyed last month, reports our Suzi Parker. The Clinton team says it doesn’t fit in. Read that lawsuit here. Still, the groundbreaking was a festive affair among the 1,000 invitation-only guests.
12/4/01 Memo to reporters: Get Met
The United Nations is planning to relaunch its passenger flight service between Afghanistan and Pakistan as soon as possible for officials, aid workers, and journalists. But for reporters heading to war central, you'd better get the OK from accounting before flying between Bagram to Islamabad. A one-way ticket is $2,500. The U.N. swears that's not a typo, claiming that the spooked insurance industry is charging $50,000 per flight to cover the U.N. planes. "The insurance industry is obviously not a humanitarian business," says a U.N. spokesperson.
